THE GEESE AND THE GHOST

The career of Anthony Phillips is rather strange. He played on Genesis two first albums in 1969 and 1970 and then he didn't release anything until this first solo album in 1977. It thus took him a very long time to prepare this album. This is ironic since it was just between 1970 and 1977 that progressive Rock was at its peak in both quality and popularity. Phillips was there early on, but he still kind of missed the Prog boat!

The present album is largely an acoustic and instrumental affair with a folky and medieval sound. Even if Phillips were never in Genesis at the same time as Phil Collins, the latter is invited here to sing lead vocals on a couple of songs here. Mike Rutherford also lends a hand as well as Steve Hackett's brother John on flutes. With so many people associated with Genesis you might expect this to sound like Genesis, but that is a bit too hasty an assumption. There surely are passages that sound quite a bit like Genesis in their most mellow moments, but overall this is an entirely different beast. The Geese And The Ghost is a very soft and mellow album with absolutely no sign of Rock as such. The pace is almost entirely slow and contemplative.

The first track is a rather pointless, very brief sound-scape that fades in and out rather than flows into the next track. It thus does not function very well as an introduction. Which Way The Wind Blows is sung by Phil Collins and as such sounds like a mellow Genesis song. But had this song been on, say, Wind And Wuthering it would have stood out as the weakest track. Phil sings on one other track as well, but that one is a duet with a female vocalist and as such sounds much less like a Genesis number. Phillips himself also sings on a few passages but the album is mostly instrumental.

I'm not particularly impressed by this album at all, but it is a good listen

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